Anime Yakuza and Thieves
With rising crimes and lack of police force, yakuza have become richer. They deal in flesh, drugs and smuggling destructive weapons which is good for business.
Mellow and carefree Spike Spiegel balances out his boisterous partner Jet Black as they make a living by chasing bounties in this sci-fi epic.
The Yakuza
The yakuza are a powerful crime syndicate in Japan, where they’re considered semi-legitimate. The gangs cooperate with banks, corporations and government authorities. They openly endorse political candidates and enjoy business ties without scandal.
Loyalty to the gangs is fierce, and members are expected to cut all ties with their biological families. This was part of the appeal: joining a yakuza group meant finding a family of brothers to stand by you in times of trouble.
This anime takes place in the year 2071, when humanity has colonized the planets and moons of our solar system, leaving Earth uninhabitable. Mellow and carefree bounty hunter Spike Spiegel is balanced by his boisterous partner Jet Black as they make their living chasing bounties and collecting rewards aboard the spaceship Bebop.
Shokujinki
This anime is one of the most faithful adaptations of this classic tale. Its a bloody show that also has an interesting twist to it.
The plot centers around the existence of flesh eating creatures that hid among human beings while feeding on their bodies secretly. A select few of these people knew of their existence and formed a martial arts style school called the Kifuuken to combat them. The Kifuuken used a technique called Kemonozume to bond a Shokujinki’s clawed arms to their own in order to wield them in battle.
Raku Ichijo and Chitoge Kirisaki are children of the leaders of rival gangs who are forced to pretend to be in a relationship in order to keep the peace between their families. Despite their hatred for each other they begin to develop real feelings over time. The result is a hilarious romantic comedy with some serious yakuza undertones.
The King of Thieves
Thieving is the ability to take what does not belong to you by stealth or force. Thieving anime may focus on one thief or an entire band working together. The King of Thieves focuses on Jing, the Bandit King.
He is a small but mighty crook who travels the world with his talking albatross partner Kir. They often team up to defeat enemies, and their attacks include a green ball of lightning shot out of Kir’s mouth. Jing also possesses a special ability to meld gems.
Director James Marsh (Man on Wire, Project Nim) brings dutiful, almost docudrama accuracy to this rich true story about the largest heist in British criminal history. But he fails to infuse the film with cinematic swagger, and the cast, led by Michael Caine, is left flailing. The result is a lethargic mix of lukewarm comedy and bleak crime drama. Unlike the lame Disney sequels, this one is not worth your time.
Alpaca in the Drama Club
An alpaca — a smaller cousin to the llama — hangs out with costume design students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It’s all part of a class project that Jamie Bullins, assistant professor of theater and film, assigned to his students for this year’s fall festival.
Bullins’s students were given a choice of creatures for their project; the animal that most inspired them was an alpaca. One student from Norfolk chose to transform herself into one by using skinny khaki pants for the animal’s long legs and a sweater for its furry coat, along with a messy bun for the topknot.
Mahogany, the chocolate-brown alpaca who hangs out with the students, was brought to campus through Rebecca Armstrong, a graduate student pursing her master’s degree in art who raises the animals on an acreage northeast of Lincoln. She and her husband, Greg Gilbert, will be selling items made from their farm’s wool at the festival.